What does it mean that words are supposed to create trust in our institutions?
I’m Professor of Communication at the Department of Communication and Culture, BI Norwegian Business School, and a researcher at the Department of Literature and Rhetoric, Uppsala University. I read the rhetorical tradition, from the ancient sophists to contemporary thinkers, against the problems of our time in politics, diplomacy and the economy.
Quinten Massys, The Moneylender and His Wife, 1514. Louvre, Paris.
Professor, BI Norwegian Business School
Researcher, Uppsala University
Affiliated Docent in Rhetoric, Södertörn University
Funded by Formas
Current project, 2026–
Sustainable Economies? The Swedish Riksbank and Climate Change
Parliament has asked the Riksbank to take sustainability into account, but the concept is read in different ways as legislation turns into practice. The project examines how the Riksbank understands and communicates sustainable economies, and what that says about the democratic accountability of an independent institution.
Research themes
Populism and Sophistics
Who speaks for the people? Post-truth, demagoguery and the return of the sophist.
Diplomacy
Can you speak for another? The ambassador as a figure and diplomacy as an ideological state apparatus, from the French Revolution to the digital age.
Economy and Trust
What is trust? Central banks as economic authorities, how they speaks, explain themselves, and attempt to instill confidence in themselves.
Selected publications
2023
Populism and the People in Contemporary Critical Thought
Bloomsbury Academic, with David Payne and Gustav Strandberg
Edited volume
Rhetoric for experts and institutions
Rhetoric: seeing through language
When a message will be scrutinised, interpreted and answered, speaking well is not enough. I help public authorities, organisations and research environments see their messages through, and see through them before anyone else does.
Courses and workshops
Tailored training for groups, from a half-day to a series of sessions.
Individual coaching
Preparation for the speech, hearing, interview or defence that matters.
Lectures
Research-based lectures for staff days, seminars and conferences.
Writing
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Preliminary Reflections on ’Social Cohesion’ (Part III)
The problem to which a notion like social cohesion refers, is the supposed contemporary division in the people, as if the people…
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Preliminary Reflections on ’Social Cohesion’ (Part II)
Back in 2012, the OECD’s Development Centre focused its annual report on the topic of ‘Social Cohesion’. More specifically, the center had…
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Preliminary Reflections on ’Social Cohesion’ (Part I)
As a scholar of rhetoric, my first impulse when confronted with an unfamiliar concept is usually to try to understand what French…